Heritage wins defensive battle, 14-3 over Leesville Road

Leesville Road’s defense played well, but Heritage was just a tab better Friday night as the Huskies won an old-fashioned defensive struggle, 14-3, in the Cap Eight opener for both teams.

“It was a battle. Leesville was very, very aggressive on defense,” Huskies coach Jason McGeorge said. “But we found a way to win. A win is a win in the Cap Eight and a battle like this will make us stronger. (Defensive coordinator) Wallace Clark did a great job getting our defense ready.”

Leesville (2-3 overall, 0-1 in the Cap Eight) managed just one first down in the first half and that came on a 43-yard first quarter run by Mike Dehaney that led to the Pride’s only score in the game, a 26-yard field goal by Ben Grant with 3:45 left in the opening period.

Heritage (4-1, 1-0) answered with its best offensive display of the game, a 70-yard scoring drive. Quarterback Blake Walters completed three passes in the drive for 48 yards including a 27-yard scoring strike to 6-foot-5 senior receiver Gershom Ejoni with 16 seconds left in the first half.

The rest of the game belonged to the two defenses. Bod Davis put the other touchdown on the board on a 50-yard punt return in midway the third quarter. Isaac Burton rushed for 48 yards in the first half for Heritage but left the game early in the third with an injury.

“Our defense has played really good the last few weeks. Without looking at the film it looked like Jordan Moore, our safety, had some good plays, and defensive end Daniel Gleiberman had a few sacks,” Leesville coach Mike Hobgood said. “And we’re struggling offensively. It’s just inexperience, we’ve got good players on offense, they’ve just got to keep learning. It’ll come, but it is frustrating.”

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